This invention relates generally to mobile tables for lifting and supporting patients, such as animals, and more particularly, to an animal lifting table having an adjustable height and a ramp that is movable between a deployed configuration level with the rest of the table and a released configuration that is downwardly sloped so as to aid in offloading or directing the animal into a cage for recovery or boarding.
A veterinarian is trained and licensed to give medical treatment to animals, including assisting with birthing of baby animals, treating diseases, and treating injuries. Animals are usually lifted onto an examination table in a clinical setting and frequently into a kennel for overnight or extended stays at the clinic. Kennels are often stacked atop one another so that a multitude of animals may be kept in a single room. Either occasion for lifting may be difficult with larger or heavier animals.
To facilitate raising an animal to an appropriate height position for treatment, an examination table may include a jack and lift assembly. Various lift tables have been proposed in the art for lifting an animal from a retracted or floor surface to a height that is comfortably reachable by the veterinarian. Although presumably effective for their intended purposes and while this reduces the number of times a veterinarian must lift a heavy animal in order to examine or treat the animal, the animal must still be lifted into a kennel. This additional lifting, of course, may be difficult or even result in back injuries to the veterinarian or technician, especially when a heavy animal must be lifted into a stacked kennel.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a lifting and supporting table for raising an animal upwardly to a position readily accessible to a veterinarian giving an examination or treatment. Further, it would be desirable to have a lifting and supporting table having a ramp assembly that extends the work space of the examining table and that may also be inclined to offload the animal into a stacked or raised kennel without having to manually lift the animal again.